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The kasha (火車, lit. "burning chariot" or "burning barouche" or 化車, "changed wheel") is a Japanese yōkai that steals the corpses of those who have died as a result of accumulating evil deeds.
Contents
Summary
They are a yōkai that would steal corpses from funerals and cemeteries, and what exactly they are is not firmly set, and there are examples all throughout the country. In many cases their true identity is actually a cat yōkai, and it is also said that cats that grow old would turn into this yōkai, and that their true identity is actually a nekomata.
There are tales of kasha in tales like the folktale Neko Danka etc., and there are similar tales in the Harima Province (now Hyōgo Prefecture), in Yamasaki (now Shisō), there is the tale of the "Kasha-baba."
As a method of protecting corpses from kasha, in Kamikuishiki, Nishiyatsushiro District, Yamanashi Prefecture (now Fujikawaguchiko, Kōfu), at a temple that a kasha is said to live near, a funeral is performed twice, and it is said that by putting a rock inside the coffin for the first funeral, this protects the corpse from being stolen by the kasha. Also, in Yawatahama, Ehime, Ehime prefecture, it is said that leaving a hair razor on top of the coffin would prevent the kasha from stealing the corpse. In Saigō, Higashiusuki District, Miyzaki Prefecture (now Misato), it is said that before a funeral procession, "I will not let baku feed on this (バクには食わせん)" or "I will not let kasha feed on this (火車には食わせん)" is chanted twice. In the village of Kumagaya, Atetsu District, Okayama Prefecture (now Niimi), it is said that a kasha is avoided by playing a myobachi (妙八) (a traditional Japanese musical instrument).
Japanese folklore describes the Kasha as humanoid cat-demons with the head of a cat or tiger and a burning tail. They are similar to other demons such as Nekomata and Bakeneko and get often interchanged with them. Kashas are said to travel the world on burning chariots or barouches, stealing the corpses of recently deceased humans, which were not yet buried and who had been sinful in life. They bring their souls to hell.
Kasha in classics
Similar things to kasha
Things of the same kind as kasha, or things thought of as a different name for kasha, are as following.
In Tōno, Iwate Prefecture, called "kyasha," at the mountain next to the pass that continued from the village of Ayaori, Kamihei District (now part of Tōno) to the village of Miyamori (now also part of Tōno), there lived a thing that took on the appearance of a woman who wore a kinchaku bag tied to her front, and it is said that it would steal corpses from coffins at funerals and dig up corpses from the gravesites and eat the corpses. In the village of Minamimimaki, Nagano Prefecture (now Saku), it is also called "kyasha," and like usual, it would steal corpses from funerals.
In the Yamagata Prefecture, a story is passed down where when a certain wealthy man died, a kasha-neko (カシャ猫 or 火車猫) appeared before him and attempted to steal his corpse, but the priest of Seigen-ji drove it away. What was then determined to have been its remaining tail was then presented to the temple of Hase-kannon as a charm against evil spirits, which is open to the public on new years each year.
In the village of Akihata, Kanra District, Gunma Prefecture (now Kanra), a monster that would eat human corpses are called "tenmaru," and in order to defend against this, the bamboo basket on top was protected.
In Himakajima, Aichi Prefecture, kasha are called madōkusha, and it is said that a cat that would reach one hundred years of age would become a yōkai.
In the Izumi region, Kagoshima Prefecture, called "kimotori," they are said to appear at the gravesite after funerals.
Considerations
In Japan, from old times, cats were seen as possessing supernatural abilities, and there are legends such as "one must not let a cat get near a corpse" and "when a cat leaps over a coffin, the corpse inside the coffin will wake up." Also, in the collection of setsuwa tales, the Uji Shūi Monogatari from medieval Japan, a gokusotsu (an evil ogre that torments the dead in hell) would drag a burning hi no kuruma (wheel of fire), it is said that they would attempt to take away the corpses of sinners, or living sinners. It has thus been determined that the legend of the kasha was born as a result of the mixture of legends concerning cats and the dead, and the legend of the "hi no kuruma" that would steal away sinners.
There is also the theory that the legend of kappa making humans drown and taking their butts (eating their innards from their butts) was born as a result of the influence of this kasha. Also, in China, there is the legend of the yōkai called wangliang, but as it is said that they like to eat the inneards of people's corpses, it is seen that in Japan, this was mixed up with the kasha that would steal corpses in Japan, and in addition to how in the aforementioned "Bōsō Manroku," the characters 魍魎 were read "kuhashiya," in the essay Mimibukuro by Negishi Shizumori, in volume four "Kiboku no Koto" (鬼僕の事), there is a scene under the name, "The One Called Mōryō" (魍魎といへる者なり).
Re-usage of the term
The word "hi no kuruma" which means urgency of economic conditions, comes from how the dead would receive torture from this kasha (hi no kuruma).
In the region of the Harima Province, old women with bad personalities are said to be called "kasha-baba" ("kasha old women"), with the nuance that they are old women that are like bakeneko.
How the yarite, the woman who controls the yūjo in the yūkaku, is called "kasha" (花車, "flower wheel") comes from this kasha, and as the yarite was the woman who managed everything, and how the word "yarite" is also used to indicate people who move bullock carts (gissha or gyūsha) also comes from this.